Differential Achievement By Social Class (Education).

Question 1

What is a problem with the government’s data ?

Answer 1

The data isn’t collected in relation to social class.

Question 2

Why is social class difficult to measure ?

Answer 2

Different people have different views / opinions on how social classes should be defined / measured.

Question 3

What is a useful way to look at educational data ?

Answer 3

Free school meals (FSM).

Question 4

What does FSM show ?

Answer 4

That there is a significant achievement gap between those eligible for FSM and those who aren’t.

Question 5

What are higher household income pupils more likely to achieve / do ?

Answer 5

They are more likely to recieve 5 GCSE’s at high levels and take on more challenging GCSE subjects in comparison to those pupils that come from / are a part of lower income households.

Question 6

Why were schools able to get higher / better results in GCSE’s ?

Answer 6

Because they were entering more lower level ability students for less challenging subjects.

Question 7

What has lowering the achievement gap resulted in ?

Answer 7

Despite some progress believed to have been made, things are mainly getting worse for the less advantaged students.

Question 8

What is the achievement gap ?

Answer 8

When one group of students does better / outperforms another group of students. (e.g. a group of middle class students doing better than a group of working class students)

Question 9

What is an unpopular view among sociologists ?

Answer 9

That IQ is inherited genetically and therefore middle class students are more intelligent than working class students because they have more intelligent parents.

Question 10

What did Jensen and Eysench study ?

Answer 10

They studied identical twins that were brought up in different environments but had similar IQ’s.

Question 11

What did Jensen believe ?

Answer 11

That 80 percent of your IQ is inherited.

Question 12

What is a main problem / flaw with IQ tests ?

Answer 12

It is debatable to how reliable the results are and the idea that people can improve their IQ through practicing for questions in the test, despite you appearing more intelligent then others you aren’t you are simply prepared with the correct knowledge.

Question 13

What are some factors that can possibly affect IQ ?

Answer 13

Material deprivation, the environment that you live in, poor diet during pregnancy etc.

Question 14

What did Douglas (1964) discover about intelligence ?

Answer 14

He found that a middle class student of “average” intelligence was more likely to pass tests that a working class student of “average” intelligence.

Question 15

What do many sociologists believe are the two main factors that contribute to how well students do in education ?

Answer 15

In school (internal) factors or out of school (external factors).

Question 16

What do sociologist also look at that can impact how well students do in education ?

Answer 16

material and cultural explanations. e.g. whether the differences in grades is due to working class students having less money to access resources than middle class students or whether they have different attitudes and values compared to middle class students.

Question 17

What is a key out of school factor that might impact differential achievement by social class ?

Answer 17

Material deprivation.

Question 18

What is material deprivation ?

Answer 18

inability to afford basic resources such as sufficient food, heating, clothing, educational resources (school uniform, school books, tutors etc).

Question 19

What does / can material deprivation lead to ?

Answer 19

Poor educational performance and as a result can lead to underachievement.

Question 20

What is one factor of poor educational achievement and what does it lead to ?

Answer 20

Poor diet / under nourishment can lead to underperformance in education, poor health, lack of attendance, missing out on learning etc.

Question 21

What are some examples of important material factors ?

Answer 21

The internet, books, a quiet place to work etc.

Question 22

What are working class pupils more likely to have to do in order to provide for their families than middle class pupils ?

Answer 22

Undertake employment alongside their education.

Question 23

What can employment alongside education / school work lead to mainly for working class members of society ?

Answer 23

Working too many hours can lead to educational underperformance as there is insufficient time to study, as pupils are too tired to concentrate,

Question 24

If a middle class student is undertaking employment alongside their education what are they able to do to catch up ?

Answer 24

They are able to afford educational visits and pay for private tuition.

Question 25

Why are working class pupils more likely to be culturally deprived ?

Answer 25

Inadequate socialisation.

Question 26

What does it mean to be culturally deprived ?

Answer 26

Where a person / specific group of people has an inferior / different norms and values, skills, education etc.

Question 27

What do Marxists / Neo - Marxists believe about differential achievement by social class ?

Answer 27

That cultural capital gives middle class students an advantage.

Question 28

What do New Right believe about differential achievement by social class ?

Answer 28

That underclass households are producing values and attitudes that are detrimental to educational achievement.

Question 29

What do Right Wings believe that there is between the working and middle class and what does it lead to ?

Answer 29

They believe that there is a significant cultural difference between the working class and the middle class. it leads to the working class pupils are expecting immediate gratification from education whereas middle class pupils are expecting deferred gratification.

Question 30

What is immediate and deferred gratification ?

Answer 30

Immediate gratification is where the results show up / are received right away, whereas deferred gratification is where the results show up / are received over time.

Question 31

What is the impact of immediate / deferred gratification ?

Answer 31

As a result working class pupils prefer to leave school as soon as they can and get a job. whilst middle class pupils delay employment in order to attain higher qualifications and get higher paid occupations as a result.

Question 32

What does the right wing perspective end up doing ?

Answer 32

Blaming working class families for differential achievement by social class.

Question 33

What two sociologists supported the right wing perspectives ?

Answer 33

Sugarman (1970) who was influences by Hyman (1967).

Question 34

What did Sugarman and Hyman believe about cultural deprivation ?

Answer 34

That working class families were less interested in social mobility than middle class families.

Question 35

What did Douglas (1964) argue about cultural deprivation?

Answer 35

That working class parents took less interest in school and education and therefore pushed their children less and indeed often encouraged them to focus on goals outside of school and eduation.

Question 36

What do Marxists believe about cultural deprivation ?

Answer 36

That it exists due to the education system reproducing inequalities.